GIMP is a good starter programme, it's what I learned to art with. If you can afford it though, I would recommend Paint Tool Sai, it's honestly the best programme I own. Another good free one is Autodesk Sketchbook, but its better if you can afford the Pro version.

My art might not be what you're looking for as an inspiration, but I'll offer help nonetheless.

Example One
Example Two
Example Three

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Kitten ~ Thank you!
I do like your art style quite a lot ^-^ and you can draw in various poses which is what I need help with he most XD
Do you draw other characters too, or animals etc?

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I can draw horses, I dabble in dragons... but mostly that's it. I have some other examples of furries - I can draw most species of furries, but my other examples are NSFW.

My horses
Chibi Dragons

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They're adorable! I'd definitely be interested in getting some tips etc ^-^
I'm trying to design myself an anthro, but am having some trouble deciding what sort of thing looks right together and so on. Do you think you'd be able to help me choose and then help me with drawing it in various poses? ^-^

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Yes of course :) If you pm me what you're after I can throw together a quick design or base for you :)

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Thank you :D

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For learning in real-time with someone else I can absolutely not recommend anything fore than Drawpile.
Drawpile is absolutely free and as long as you have a way to connect to a perner (such as with Hamachi) you can draw together on the same canvas.
One upon a time I used OpenCanvas 1.1 to do this, but that was a very old, outdated program missing a lot of features that made it super difficult to work with sometimes

anyways, uh
I do furs, humans, quads, just about anything. Not so much drags anymore
(my dA galley for reference -> http://aloccin.deviantart.com/gallery/ ; it doesn't have all my recent stuff since so much of it is lewd commissions, lmao)
are you looking to learn a toonier or more realistic type of fur?

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Thank you! Nice art ^-^ ~ I'd say cartoonish more so! Semi-realistic style.
Somewhere ranging between these two points of realism.
http://www.deviantart.com/art/Johaan-545281701 - http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/012/7/1/71cc0ae7c773f3501ce70d036aa8e858.png

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openCanvas 1.1 isn't that hard to work with... It's what I use.

Anywho... defensiveness out of the way, I might be interested in helping you. But I'm not sure if I'm what you would be looking for though.

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I'm pretty open about art styles, just show me some examples ^-^

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@mots
hey now, I only said sometimes! I still love using it for sketching on occasion , but the inability to flip the canvas to check for mistakes can really get under the skin.

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Al, do you have any tutorials/tips etc? ^-^

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Tips...right.

One. ALWAYS have reference images unless you are super pro at a particular subject. You forget more than you think. Look at skeletons to learn joints, various pics in motion to learn how muscles curl and flex, etc.

Two. (This is especially important when working digitally) Always warm up your wrist when you come back from a break. I always warm up by drawing the shape of a rather cartoony daisy (narrow single-stroke "petals" coming out from a single point) over and over until my wrist gets all limber.

Three. Flip your canvas ANY time you think about it, especially if you have been staring at your pic a long time.

Four. Do not be afraid to incorporate elements of other art styles you like.

Five. Experiment with pen pressure and line thickness to find what suits you best. I can tell by the way you like you aren't entirely comfortable with your current method.



--thats all i could think of off the top of my head

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Thank you!
I used to draw with really thick black lines for everything XD Now I draw with lines averagely at 2-4 pixels usually a slightly darker shade than the actual piece, sometimes I don't have lines at all! I don't really have a set line I like just yet XD

Is there anyone who can screenshare fairly soon to help?

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